Universal Language

Does anyone else find it interesting that with the hundreds of spoken langauges and thousands of different cultures that there is one language that stays the same? There are just somethings that we all do reguardless of race, gender, or nationality. I guess I just find it neat that we as human beings have this connection despite our differences. When we are happy we laugh, though the humorous subject might be different; a monkey in the jungle or sitcom on tv, it doesn't matter. If something is sad, we cry, a sad story or your friend moving away. I don't really know what the point of this post is other than to say that though you may think you are quite distintive from someone across the globe or across the street, if you break it down, you're not so different as you might suppose.

At Face Value

Stereotyping people sure is a curious matter, is it not? Sure there are many people that share similar interests or have charecter qualities that are alike but it seems a little absurd to think that you could systematize something as complex as a human being and yet we do. A majority of the time, I believe, that we do it inadvertently; which is why we are suprised or shocked when an individual does something that we perceive to be out of charecter for them. God made us unique and different, I mean, if he did it for the snowflakes, why wouldn't he do it for us? I think that sometimes we can right off an individual by doing a quick analysis of thier speech, attire, just the general feeling that you get from them, and decide from that, if they are a person of interest to you. I do not claim to be above this( as this post is as much for me as it might be for you). I have realized that there is alot that I have missed out on because I had taken the little information that I had, and decided that that person is not the type of person that I'd like to hang out with. This screams superficial and of this I am well aware; so I challenge you, as well as myself, to get to know people before you make any decisions about them. Of course there are people who's company you do not enjoy and I'm not saying that you should make everyone that you meet your best friend, what I am simply trying to convey is that you should give people a chance, because you just might find something you like.

Shadow of Light

I know that it is rather cliche to make comments about darkness and light, but I just couldn't help myself. My thoughts were sparked by a Dr. Suess book that I was reading the other day, and it asked the question that if there was a flashlight for when it's dark, is there a flash dark for when it's light? I know that it wasn't meant to be taken seriously but for some reason my mind captured that thought and has been mauling it over for some time now, and here is what I've come up with.



Light can penetrate darkness. If you open up a lit closet in a darkened room the light from the closet will cut through the darkness and ilumminate the room. However if you have a light room and you open a darkened closet, the darkness doesn't cast shadow over the lit room, in fact the light from the room will seep into the darkened closet. Now when you think about it the only way that you can cut out light is blocking the source thus creating a small absence of light, or a shadow.



As I was pondering this thought, it came to me that the same is true with God. The devil has no power of his own...the only way he can get the upper hand is if he blocks the light or the truth thus creating a dark spot. If you take time to think about it the metaphors are innumerable.And they really do have a neat connection.

Wander as I Wonder

I find wondering while you walk to be an incredibly relaxing thing to do. I think of it as a little vacation for my thoughts. All too often we get carried away or bogged down by the cares of daily life that we limit or confine our thoughts to just those things. This isn't bad because obviously there are issues that will only be solved if we think of the solution, but sometimes it's just nice to take a break. The walking aspect of "walking and wandering" is important as that it physically takes you away from your normal setting; meriting the phrase "out of sight, out of mind." It also continually gives your mind new subject mater in which to think on. If I sit in one place I tend to meditate on one or two things, but when I walk my mind sort of glances from one subject to another; not thinking too deeply about anything but considering it long enough to at least shape a thought about it. In fact it is fun to trace the course of your thoughts as you wonder. I, at least, think it's entertaining in it's self, to see how you brain switches from one topic to another. In the end I don't solve world hunger, or come up with a way to make the deserts fertile but my mind feels lighter and we could all use the exercise.

Picture This

A painted picture is impressive, but even more impressive, in my mind, is the picture painted by words. Have you ever read a book describing a cold damp day and felt like you needed a blanket? Or have you read a book about being at a feast and suddenly needed a bite to eat yourself? Well I have and I must say that it is one of my favorite feelings in the world. I can honestly say that there are a precious few authors that have truely taken me on a journey with them, but their art of description is so real that it is worth seeking out the handful that posses that talent. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one of these authors. In his Sherlock Holmes stories he often describes the cold damp foggy mornings that are often associated with London. This, of course, makes the fire that frequents his study's fireplace all the more pleasing. Then there are those that play with your emotions. They cause you to feel absolute distain for a charecter and in one fellow swoop they turn them into the most endearing member of the story. Sometimes it's the actions of a story that evoke emotion and not just the charecters themselves. Several times I've caught myself wanting to yell "NO" at the top of my lungs because a particual charecter doesn't know what they are getting themselves into. Or the books that you just can't put down because you're worried about what will happen next. I'll tell you books are a roller coaster....it's a shame that more people don't ride.

Define Yourself

Have you ever, through the course of conversation, been asked to define yourself? It is a tough question to answer spur of the moment, especially when it is used in conjunction with the stipulation "in one word" or something like that. I admit that I ask this question quite frequently but seldom do I answer it when I am asked. The reason, however that I ask the question is not to get the absolute answer, because it is just a farce to assume that we could actually cover all of who we are in a solitary word, but rather to see what aspect of the person I'm asking, do they see to be their most prominent. I have found that I often get interesting answers; intersting in the way that someone might say a word that I would have thought to be a more minor charecteristicthat they see as a defining one. So I encourage you to ask that question next time you need a topic in conversation.....you might be suprised at what you hear.

Conversing Through Conversation

Comunication is an incredible and peculiar thing when you think about it. Without it, from an informational stand point alone, there would be a world of knowledge lost with each person. Things that I have learned that I wouldn't be able to share with you, or things that someone hundreds of years ago had learned that would be lost. How many creative works would be left undone or how would we even know about them if they were completed? Stories, fiction and non-fiction alike, would be left untold.

In my mind even greater than these, is the day to day comunication with those around us. To me it is just fascinating that I can put to words some of my inner most thoughts and share them with another individual. Maybe I am quite by myself on this topic but I just find the transfer of information to be so incredibly interesting. I could have a thought birthed inside of me and through words I could describe this thought to another individual, and that very same thought that just moments ago was exclusivlely mine is now inside the other individual. Is that not crazy?!

A Penny For Your Thoughts

A penny for your thoughts seems a small price to pay to know what someone is thinking especially for the thoughts that are connected to me. I often wonder what people see when they look at me and what they hear when I speak. I know myself; what the thoughts and motives are behind what I say and do, but sometimes people do things that they don't even realize that they are doing. Which causes me to wonder how true to form I represent myself. I have several groups of friends that I hang out with and I was contemplating the other day, what would happen if all of these groups were to get together and discuss me (without me being there, of course); what would they say? Certianly there are differneces in the groups, some are crazier and others are more laid back, and I myself would tend to be more lively or more laid back in each. I might be considered more reserved in one group and the life of the party in the next. To a large degree the former statement is true, I think that you do take on the identity of the group that you spend time with. I'm not saying that by spending extended periods of time with a certian group of people that you'd end up with a group of carbon copies, but what I am saying is that group dynamics for every group of friends is different. You will do things with one group that you might not do with another; not necessarily good or bad, just differnet things. For example one group might prefer to go out and do stuff while the other might like to gather at someone's home. Do you see what I'm saying? I come acrossed as very reserved when I am with new people or in an enviorment in which I am unfamiliar with, however when I become more comfortable I open up and have a more jocular contenance. There are many little and seemingly insignificant things that contribute to people's overall opinion of you. In answer to my earlier question about the group conversation; I believe that at the very least it would an entertaining discussion if not enlightening.

Wondered Out

Do you ever get to a point where you are just tired of trying to figure things out, people out, or life out? Times when trying to stay ahead only leaves you more behind and confused than when you started? Some people refer to this as "over thinking" but I'm not so sure that that phrase is the best for this situation. I mean if I were "over thinking" something I'd like to assume that I'd have more answers than what I needed rather than none at all. See what I'm saying? It seems to me that, for me, a phrase like "fruitless deliberation" is far more fitting. It's all the mental activity without any conceivable or sufficient resolution, and as with anything, one becomes discouraged at the lack of result over an extended period of time. I hope that I have made this as clear as I possibly can, but, to be honest, it is a rather difficult thing to describe while in the midst of it. It is times like these that I find great solace in my quiet place. I don't care for the term "retreat" because I don't want it to seem like I'm running from the issue at hand, but rather it is a time to rest and reorganize. When I take these things to God and let him deal with them; I find that the things that had just moments ago perplexed my mind to a very frusterating end suddenly lose their significance and many times their complexities. Wonder why I didn't just start out doing that instead of trying to muddle through it on my own...

Another Era

Wouldn't it be fun,
To live in a previous age?
To open up the history book
and jump right in the page.

Kings, Queens, and Knights
To visit would be grand.
Jousting and archery tournaments
And castles through all the land.

Or England in the day
of the carriage and the horse.
The trotting and the rattle
is heard on brick roads coarse.

To go back to the day
of the curtsey and the bow
To use words like shall,
musn't, mayest, thine, and thou.

Or to try the wild west
with Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane
Cowboys and Indians
Or take a ride on the first train.

It would be fun to sail
With the amazing Captian Cook.
To discover unknown lands
just by entering a book.

Perhaps I would try
The ancient and mysterious Far East
To bring back pottery and silks
I wouldn't mind in the least!

What if I lived
Through the time of the Civil War
For me the names Yankee and Rebel
Would mean a whole lot more.

How about living in the day of Jesus.
The years that changed the world.
And feeling the excitement and the thrill
Of watching temple tables hurled.

However, I live in the here and now,
and as much fun as another age would be,
I know that God has a plan
In this day just for me.
-A.D.

More Than Meets The Eye

Have you wondered if there is more to this world than what our eyes can see? Think about it. What if we could step outside of our bodies and see what the world really looks like. Confused? Allow me to explain, since I really don't wish to lose you on this thought. Experts say that a dog is color blind. He, however, doesn't know that he's color blind, nor does he realize what he's missing. To him the world is simply clad in shades of grey. Apply that concept to the human eye. What if there is more out there than what our eyes can perceive? What if the wind had a color? What if radio waves were visible? What if the air we breathe had visible substance? Or what if the 2 invisible-to-our-eyes colors on the spectrum were only the begining? What if music wasn't just a sound, I mean could it be possible that it has a shape? Just because we haven't discovered the existance yet, doesn't mean that it isn't possible that things like that do exist. It's not as crazy as you might think. If the dog doesn't know what he's missing, perhaps the same is true for us. It's a fun and mysterious thing to consider, is it not.

2 Kings 6:8-23 is a great illustration, and I can see no reason why the same wouldn't be true for today.

What If....

You read in your history book about what happened, but do you ever wonder, what would have happened if..? Like what would have happened if Christopher Columbus had turned around before he reached America? Or better yet what if he was wrong and the world really was flat? What do you suppose would have happened if the Indians would have discovered Europe instead of the other way around? What if Issac Newton was sitting beneath a pineapple tree?....might not have remembered as much. What if The Colliseum was a place for watching magic shows? What if the leaning tower of Pisa wasn't leaning? What if pirates delievered ice cream instead of plundering? Do you ever look at your own life and ask "what if?" Hollywood has used it as more of an anthem for doing something daring but honestly no matter what you do you could always look back and ask what if. Not just for the steroetypical "big" things either. You could ask yourself What if I said "Hi" instead of "Hello"? What if I ordered a #6 instead of a #2? Or what if I wore that yellow shirt instead of this blue one? Life is full of "what if's?" You can't change them but it sure would be fun to see what would have happened.

Thinking hard, or hardly thinking?

Do you ever take time to just wonder? To think without a perceivable purpose? To take advantage of a quite moment and just think without a particular focus; to give your imagination a chance to stretch its arms. I suppose one might call it day dreaming, but I prefer to define it as pondering. It's a time when you can ask questions without expecting an answer or maybe even wanting one. A time that you can mix fiction with what's real, and what's real with fiction. You could close your eyes and listen to the sounds of silence, or you could keep them open and just marvel at all that we take for granted. Things like clouds, trees, water that comes out of a faucet when you turn a knob, fingers, leaves, geese flying in "v's", sunsets and sunrises, ants, mountians, ice, steam, jello, eyes, walking, touch, cars, tadpoles, and so on. Stars and planets fill me with insurmountable awe. The earth seems so big and yet we are but a portion of what is out there. Often in the summer I look at the stars and just ponder and I don't think it will ever get tiresome. So this week I challenge you to find a spare moment and ponder. Look at something as if you were seeing it for the first time.

I'd like to continue blogging about wonder for a while....it's just fun.